Thursday, March 10, 2011

SPATIAL: Space Progress

So I've decided to continue developing the avenue of concept 1. To recap the viewer would be able to walk underneath it and interact with it. Once underneath, this cone shaped monument would allow the viewer to look up and find a distinctive point of reference in the sky. This idea would create a sense of depth and distance, a never ending illusion. It would be possible too, that things were to be poking out and intruding the space inside to further provide a sense of distance. The shape is a cone shape referencing a space shuttle or even a telescope. I also thought about how it would look at night, so I figured there could be some orchestration of lights within the outside or inside.

I have also thought about some other things. For example, depending on what time of day there would be one spot that would be able to light the whole inside of the monument. I envision this being somewhat representative of a supernova. This idea of light hitting specific areas could also play with activating sounds. These sounds could consist of anything from The Planets soundtrack or sounds that sound like "zooming" or "exploding". I'm not sure if space does have sound, but who knows.

The scale of the monument would be 1/2" = 1". I think the height of this monument is going to be 42ft, since the number 42 is thought to be the number of the universe (not just in The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy), but also a couple of other things. (like the angle curve of a rainbow)

As for smells, I'm still tossing what the smell would be like. Can you really put a definite smell on adventure? Well as far as what space smells like, my research has revealed that it has a gunpowder-esk kind of smell. Some other descriptions are: fire/burn smell/ozone/electrical smell/hot metal & fried steak.

Interesting Fact Alert: NASA has even hired Steven Pearce of Omega Ingredients to create a scent for space, so they can utilize it in the training processes.

Taste is also kind of different and hard to represent on the monument. Space food has evolved since the early days and astronauts can actually eat regular food, but I think it would definitely be an "adventurous" experience to have tubes of food available for monument viewers.

Location- I'm weighing 2 different options for locations of the monument.1. Rising Star, Texas - As this little town looked for an idea for a name, they were unsuccessful...until they noticed the twinkling morning star that showed up every morning and decided to name it Rising Star.2. Mars, Pennsylvania- This is also a small town, that's home to the Mars spaceship. This town embraces the Mars name a lot as they have places like Mars Tools and even have their sports team named The Planets.3. Vegas- I also thought this would be an interesting spot to have an interactive space monument. It has everything from around the world, so why not something from out of this world. haha